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NAME

       xchain - Chain Reaction, Strategy game for 2-4 players

SYNOPSIS

       xchain [-v] [--version] [-h] [--help] [path to wish]

DESCRIPTION

       Rules of the game

       Chain  Reaction  is  played  on  an 8 by 8 board. Players take turns to
       move.  On each move, the player may select an empty square, or one they
       already  own.  Squares belonging to other players may not be chosen. If
       the square was unowned, it becomes the property of the player,  and  is
       given  a  value of 1.  If the square was owned by the player, the value
       is incremented.

       If the value of a square ever exceeds the  maximum  permitted  of  that
       square, it explodes. Squares in the corner have a maximum of 1, squares
       touching an edge, but not on a corner have a maximum of 2, and  squares
       in the interior have a maximum of 3.

       When  a square explodes, it becomes unowned, and it’s value is reset to
       0.  The 4 squares  touching  it  become  owned  by  the  owner  of  the
       exploding square, and their values are incremented. If any of these are
       above their maximum, they explode, giving rise to the chain reaction.

       If, at the end of a move, any of the players have no squares, they  are
       dead,  and  get no more turns. When there is only one person left, they
       are the winner.

       Game options

       On loading the game, a 2 player game with a blank board is  loaded.  To
       change  this,  edit  the  settings  to  suit,  and click on "New Game".
       Clicking on this in the middle of a game will abandon it, and  start  a
       new one.

       To  select  the number of players, click on the numbered radio buttons.
       To the right of these are entry boxes  to  fill  in  player  names,  if
       desired.   The  background  to  these  shows the colour of the players’
       squares. Names and colours are only updated when "New Game" is  clicked
       on.  To  the  right  of  these,  are  counters of the number of squares
       belonging to each player.

       If a shorter game is desired, squares can be set for the players before
       the  game  starts.  This  can  be up to 4 rows and columns, or a random
       placement. For 2 players, up to 32 squares each may be  chosen.  For  3
       players, up to 21 each, and for 4 players, up to 16 each.

       Whoever  goes  first  has  quite an advantage. To offset this, a random
       first person can be chosen. On clicking  "New  game",  the  status  bar
       below the board shows who this will be.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       -v, --version
              Show version of program.

       path to wish
              Chain  Reaction requires the wish tcl/tk interpreter. By default
              it uses /usr/bin/wish (The default  for  Debian  GNU/Linux,  and
              most  other  Unix-like  systems).  Use  this  option  to force a
              different location.

FILES

       /usr/bin/wish
              Default location of wish tcl/tk interpreter.

BUGS

       Not guaranteed to be free of potential buffer  overflows.  Do  not  use
       setuid, or with greater privilege than the players using it.

WISH LIST

       Network support.

       A  way  to  save  game  settings  -  either environment variables, or a
       settings file.

HISTORY

       First seen many years ago on the (as it  was  then)  Acorn  Archimedes.
       Original  author  unknown.  Written  for  Unix  by  Alistair Cunningham
       <ac212@cam.ac.uk>

       http://thor.cam.ac.uk/~ac212/xchain/

                                                                     xchain(6)